Mushroom Lasagna

by Sara on October 29, 2010

I’ve been eyeing this recipe for years. Finally, I mentally committed to making it this fall, but the weather never seemed to cooperate – it was always too warm. Eventually, I gave up waiting for the perfect day, and I started the preparations with the windows open wide, the temperature still in the 70’s with a warm overnight low predicted. (This was early this week, prior to the arrival of the Great Wind Storm of 2010.)

Of course I happened to pick a day where everything was already going wrong: an order I made appeared to be incorrect, I smacked my head on the bottom of the freezer, I had scheduling problems, I couldn’t find a business I was driving to…you get the idea.

And as I started making the lasagna, I forgot that I had originally intended on halving the recipe, but later changed my mind – after I purchased my mushrooms. In fact, it wasn’t until I assembled the lasagna that I realized my mistake with the mushrooms. Oh well.

Things continued to go wrong. For reasons I’m still not sure of, I decided to microwave the milk in a 4-cup liquid measure. Now, just two weeks ago I had problems with that measuring cup. Apparently, though it has enough room for 4 cups of liquid, if you add more than 1 to 1.5 cups of liquid, you cannot actually pour out any liquid without it spilling over and going everywhere. The spout just can’t do it – it’s too narrow and small. So, as I was making my béchamel, milk was spilling everywhere: on my counter, on the burner, on the cookbook (really not happy about that one). Pretty much everywhere except IN the saucepan.

And of course, I was sautéing the mushrooms while I was making my sauce. This is normal for me – I always multi-task in the kitchen, so I can save time. And besides, mushrooms are pretty low-maintenance when it comes to cooking. But with the milk disaster, and me running back and forth to my roll of paper towels to keep up with cleaning the mess, I lost track of the mushrooms, and they cooked too long. And did I mention I’m wearing a walking boot, so my “running” was really more of hobbling around while trying not to kick/step on my cat when she decided it was time to race back and forth through the kitchen?

With all of the cooking drama, I fell behind my schedule. The noodles, which were not-so-patiently waiting in my colander, had all stuck together (naturally), and I remembered why I switched to no-boil lasagna sheets.

Sigh.

I still assembled (though you can tell by the lasagna noodle in the picture below that I really no longer cared) and baked the lasagna, though I already had a hate-hate relationship with it, all because of a stupid measuring cup. (I’m still irritated. Can you tell?) Finally, the lasagna was done, and it was time for dinner.

Ina rarely disappoints me, but I simply was not crazy about this lasagna. I love mushrooms. I love parmesan. But I didn’t adore this meal. But, that’s just me. My friend had two sizable pieces, and I packed up most of the leftovers to give to him, so he ate well all week.

Bring milk to simmer in saucepan or heat in liquid measuring cup in microwave.

Melt 8 tablespoons of butter in large saucepan. Add flour and cook for 1 minute over low heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon. Pour in the hot milk. Add 1 tablespoon salt, the pepper & nutmeg, and cook over medium-low until thick. Remove from heat.

Discard mushroom stems. Slice caps ¼ inch thick. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 tablespoons of butter in 12 inch sauté pan. Add half of the mushrooms and sprinkle with salt. Cook over medium for 5 minutes. Remove mushrooms to a bowl. Cook remaining mushrooms and set all aside.

To assemble: spread sauce on bottom of 13×9 inch baking dish. Cover with noodles, more sauce, and 1/3 of the mushrooms and ¼ cup cheese. Repeat. Top with final layer of noodles and sauce and sprinkle with remaining parm.

Bake 45 minutes at 375.

*I need to use lactose-free milk, and I could only find 2%. The sauce was still plenty rich.
**I used sliced white and brown mushrooms, though only about a pound total, due to my inability to decide what whether to halve the recipe.